Coyotes Go to Heaven: A Biographical Account of F. Robert Henderson and Karen Lee Henderson 1933 – 2016

By F. Robert Henderson

This book has several subjects. The main one is about the long history of man's efforts to reduce livestock losses involving coyotes. The evolution of thinking and the influence of a educational program in Kansas brought about changes and resulted in the work of one man that helped change the thinking nation wide.
The book also is about the lives of Karen Lee (Hollinger) and F. Robert Henderson. Their marriage has spanned more than 58 years.
The book contains stories of happenings along the way.
Our storied past in South Dakota, includes historical details of the most endangered mammal species in North America; the Black-footed Ferret.
The book, also, contains a Kansas historical information about 4-H and other youth eduction programs about ecology and the environment. First of their kind in the Great Plains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514425633

F. Robert Henderson

Karen Lee Hollinger was born in Hays, Kansas on January 15, 1936. She grew up in Russell, Kansas. Her family is a long time American traceable back to the Mayflower. Karen's mother, Erba, Karen's mother raised Karen and her brother Kenneth Albert Hollinger. Karen attended the University of Kansas and Fort Hays State University in Hays Kansas. Karen and Robert were married February 10, 1957. Frank Robert Henderson was born in San Antonia, Texas; on the 13th of January 1933. His family came to America early in the 1600s. Following 1933 the family moved often. In 1944 the family settle in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from Wichita East High School in 1951, Robert attended Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas; where he earned an Bachelor and a Master's Degree in 1956. In 1959 he attended the University of Kansas; in Lawrence, Kansas.

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Copyright © 2015 by F. Robert Henderson.

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Rev. date: 11/23/2015

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Contents

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Note To Reader

Chapter One:   Early Years: 1933–1953

Chapter Two:   College Years 1951–1956

Chapter Three:   1956–1961

Chapter Four:   South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, 1961–1968

Chapter Five:   Back to Kansas 1968–1995

Chapter Six:   Ranch and Wildlife Enterprise Businesses 1995–2014

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Author’s Note

Why I Write This Book

My life’s experiences serve as a cumulative example of the fact that one person can be successful, with God’s help, if they set their heart to the task. They do not have to graduate at the top of their college class; in fact, they could be voted the least likely to succeed. It is my wish that young people understand these things. I am writing this book mostly for them—so that they know that they can make a difference in their lifetime.

My wife Karen and I are reaching an age where our journey on this Earth could end at any time now. We have a strong faith in Jesus. If our lives ended today, we would feel hopeful that we tried to live a proper life. While we were born into families that traditionally live long lives. We fully understand that may not be what’s written for us. As of this writing, Karen is seventy-nine and I am eighty-two. We want to impart the story of our own lives, but also the lives of our ancestors and how their lives and decisions can affect future generations.

Most importantly, how our lives are entwined with each other, in both the past and the present. Our descendants need to know that the most important thing they need is a strong faith in God, the courage to stand up to work for good, to fight against evil, and to be constantly on guard. Be ready to ask for God’s help, follow the path given to them by God, and be careful not to sell their souls.

The founders of this country made sure that certain freedoms were written into the laws of America. I think it is very wrong to take freedom and responsibilities lightly. There were many thousands of good people that gave up their lives, in order for us to have the freedoms that we enjoy. You have a chance to live a life, for a fallen person, who gave their life so you could be free.

We choose to give this book the title of "Coyotes Go to Heaven" because recently the Pope Francis consoled a young man who had lost his pet dog. Pope Francis reportedly said the boy would see his dog again in heaven. Since the ancestors of domesticated dogs are wild dogs, it is probable that coyotes do go to heaven.

Therefore another reason for writing this book is to encourage everyone to become aware of the lives coyotes lead. Try to look at all sides, not only your own view, but also that of others. We think people should have a greater respect for all wild creatures.

The Lakota Plains Indian wrote a prayer of affirmation that follows:

Let us be lovers of the earth and all Nature. The earth is our Mother and she gives to us life and foundation. Therefore, let us make friends of all earth’s creatures. Let us love the animals and fly with the birds of the sky. For if we turn away from Nature our hearts will become hard: respect for Nature is the beginning of respect for our fellow humans. Let us walk gently upon the earth that we may feel the beauty of life and in feeling, caringly love one another. In the name of the Creator. Amen. Taken from A Celebration of the Life of M. Wayne Willis 1913-1991.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the people whose lives we came to know. In the writing of this book, we would especially like to thank Elizabeth Compton for her work on this book. Also we shared a prepublication copy with Lee Gerhard, Ben Brown, and Charles Lee for their comments.

Prologue

Coyotes Go to Heaven

In 1931, there was a hearing in Washington DC, regarding a controversial federal program to completely eradicate coyotes from the United States within a period of ten years. In attendance was a small minority of scientists, who strongly objected to that proposal. One in particular, E. Raymond Hall, objected to that program, and suggested an alternative an educational type program. Hall was, at that time, on the staff at the University of California at Berkeley. Despite his and other strong objections, the congress voted to approve the federal experiment to kill all coyotes in the United States within the next ten years.

However, a vast amount of knowledge can be read in a document Control of Predatory Animals—Hearings before the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry—United States Senate—Seventy First Congress—Second and third Sessions on Senate Bill 3483—A bill to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a ten year cooperative program for the eradication, suppression or bringing under control of predatory animals and other wild animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests, and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals, and for other purposes. May 8, 1930, and January 28 and 29, 1931.

A few unforeseen events occurred that prevented an evaluation of that program’s effectiveness. First of all, the nation was thrown into the Great Depression. Then, in 1941, our nation was attacked and thrown into World War II. When the ten-year deadline was up in 1942, no one really thought about the program whether it was successful or not. However, funding for the program increased.

In 1944, Hall was in Nevada. He moved that year (1944) back to his home state of Kansas, and was on staff at the University of Kansas, where he served as chairman of the zoology department and as director of the natural history museum of the University of Kansas. An ardent conservationist, he had become one of the ten most important scientists in America, authoring a book entitled Mammals of North America, and trained many well-known scientists. Born in 1902 on his family farm near Le Loup, Kansas, and raised in Lawrence, Dr. Hall never lost interest in the efforts of people to cope with wild animals. In 1945, the type of program that Dr. Hall championed in 1932 was started in the state of Missouri. In 1954, Kansas started a similar program when a man was appointed as a predator and rodent control specialist at the Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Their purpose for hiring him was to develop an education program in predator and rodent control. He served for thirteen years; having published a pamphlet entitled Rodent Control. In his thirteenth year on the job, tension in Kansas flared up over the use of a poison called 1080. This specialist gave testimony against the use of this poison; however, many powerful Kansas livestock producers wanted to have the federal program implemented, and would use this poison 1080 in Kansas.

In Western Kansas a fistfight broke up a public meeting where the coyote program was the topic. Program managers proposed a federal state program for Kansas, and a service-type plan, was adopted by the want-to-be governor. The program was to start January of 1968, after the election. However, the person who signed the agreement lost his bid for election. The new governor, Robert Docking, was a friend of Hall’s from childhood. After discussing the program, the new governor canceled the federal/state program before it ever went into effect.

Years later, I was told the story of what happened next. The governor had said, Okay, Raymond, what are we going to do now? Dr. Hall replied, We are going to hire Bob Henderson. At the time, I was working for the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks. Soon after the exchange between Hall and Docking, the people I worked for received a letter, stating that they wanted to hire me. My boss, Fred Priewert, showed me the letter and said, If you do not take the job, I would like to.

I was interviewed by Dr. Hall. One question I remember clearly was How many coyotes have you trapped? Though I had been trapping furbearing animals since I was eleven years old, I had only caught one coyote, and that was by accident. I didn’t want to answer the question. Then he said, Have you caught between one and thirty-five coyotes? I said, Yes. So I got the job of creating an educational program to help Kansas’s livestock producers deal with coyote problems. I went to the commission meeting of the SDGFP and turned in my resignation. At the same meeting, Fred Priewert also resigned to take a job as the new director of the Iowa Game and Fish Department. The federal officials in the US Fish and Wildlife Service—the ones who administered the Kansas Cooperative Service-type Predator and Rodent Control Program—were hopping mad. They swore never to return to Kansas unless they were asked by the governor. That sounded pretty good to me. There were some questions as to where I would be placed and which agency I would work for. It could have been the State Wildlife Agency, the State Agricultural Agency, or the Cooperative Extension Service. Though I had no idea what the CES was, nor knew anything about it, I will be forever grateful that the powers that be decided to assign me to the CES at Kansas State University. I was hired at the rank of assistant professor in the university system. At first, when they told me that my salary would be $9,500 per year, I told them that they didn’t have to pay me that much and I had been making $5,500 in South Dakota. They assured me that I should take their offer, so I did.

I remember standing in the office of the dean of agriculture, looking out the window, when the dean asked me what was I going to do, knowing that many of the livestock producers were upset. I told the dean that I had no idea, but assured him that I was going to do my best. In reality, I didn’t stand a chance to succeed; however, I didn’t know that. When I started to work in Kansas in 1968, there were 1,676,000 beef cattle being raised by Kansas livestock producers and there were 402,000 sheep on Kansas sheep farms. There were only two states that were trying to avoid the federal/state system—Kansas and Missouri. Soon after I was hired, I made arrangements to meet with my counterpart, Bob Smith, in Missouri. He agreed to take me with him for a week as he responded to livestock producers who were experiencing coyote problems. He had over twenty years of experience. During my week with him, I studied his methods in speech and manner. When my time with him was up, I figured I would adopt the same program for Kansas. There were 82,000 square miles in the state, 400 miles long and 200 miles wide. I promised the livestock producers that I would be at their place within twenty-four hours whenever they asked for help with coyote problems. This was the job I would hold for twenty-seven years. This is my story of what would happen in those years and all of the rest of the years of my life.

Note To Reader

From time to time as you read this book, we placed adventures we experienced. We had many happenings that have been interesting to others as we retold these stories. There were many of these type stories; we have placed on a few of these for the reader.

If you prefer to continue reading about what happened next, go to Chapter 5 and read about the program in the years from 1968 to 1995. Otherwise I have written about our lives from 1933 on to 2014, starting with chapter 1 that follows.

Chapter One

Early Years: 1933–1953

F. Robert Henderson’s father, Frank Paul Henderson, attended classes at Kansas State College for one semester in the fall of 1923. He later joined his cousin, Bruner Burchfiel, at a college in Winfield, Kansas, where they studied engineering, pottery, and brick making. His first job was working for a pottery plant in Oklahoma.

I confess, most of my early memories came from what my mother told me. My mother was born in 1905, at her parent’s farm home located one mile southwest of Harper, Kansas. (Today all that remains of that farm owned by John and Priscilla Maninger is one old silo.) My father was also born in 1905, on his parent’s farm one mile south of Bluff City, Kansas. (Nothing remains of that farm that was the first home lived in by Joseph Melvin and Josie Henderson.)

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Billie M. Henderson Matzen 1905-2008

My parents were married on September 3, 1925, at the First Methodist Church in Harper, Kansas. Because of the feud that was currently raging between the towns of Harper and Anthony, neither set of parents attended the wedding ceremony.

After spending a year in Oklahoma, my folks moved to Portland, Oregon, where my father worked as an engineer for the state road system. My mother got a job working at the newspaper office. Meanwhile, Bruner Burchfiel, (my father’s cousin and my godfather) was working in California. In 1928, my parents moved to the Golden State after Bruner found a job for my dad in the pottery business.

My parents moved to Catalina Island in 1930, then moved again to San Antonio, Texas, where I was born in January 1933. My father continued to work in the pottery business, moving the family to Monterey, Mexico in October 1933 to work in the pottery plant. My mother became pregnant with my brother, David Melvin Henderson while in Mexico, and spent the majority of her pregnancy there. However, Dad took Mom to San Antonio, Texas, when it was time for delivery, so that his birth would be in the United States. Dad said, That way, David could be president someday!

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My brother was blond. Our ages are estimated to have been 3 and 5. F.Robert being the oldest.

My brother arrived on October 30, 1935. While he was very young, he acquired the nickname Skippy, because his blond hair set up in a curl on top of his head, just like the comic book character of the same name. As he grew older, we called him Skip.

F. Robert was baptized, on Easter Sunday, 1933, in Salina Kansas in an Episcopal Church attended by my Aunt and Uncle Emily and Ned Cheney, and my parents and Bruner Burchfiel. In the late 1920s, F. Robert’s mother and father both joined the Episcopal Church, the faith they both remained in until their deaths, and which remains the faith of my brother, his wife, my wife myself until this day.

In later years, my mother confided to me that as a couple. They had been very happy—that is, up until I was born. My mother told me that my father never really wanted any children.

My father worked for a pottery company called Ferro Company, which specialized in the design and building kilns. My father would work to start their new plants, and once they were up